In the Desert : In the Desert (9780307496126) by Jan (ILT) J. C.; Gerardi Greenburg Page A

toward the jeep!

Andrew climbed out of the bottle cap and onto the dashboard.
    “Get back here, Bug-Brain!” yelled Judy. “Uncle Al told us to stay put!”
    “Wowzers schnauzers!” hollered Andrew. “There’s a tornado out there! Uncle Al is under the jeep. I’ll bet he doesn’t even see it!”
    “Cheese Louise!” said Judy.
    meep
… “Called dust devil,” squeaked Thudd. “Australian people call it willy-willy.
    “Air near sand get super-hot. Super-hot air light, light, light! Little shove from breeze make air spin. Spinning air pick up sand. Make willy-willy.”
    “Stuff a sock in it, Thudd!” said Judy. “The windows are wide open! We’ll get blown away!”
    meep
… “Time for purple-button message!” squeaked Thudd.
    There were three rows of three buttons on Thudd’s chest. All the buttons glowed green except for a big purple one in the middle. This was the button for sending an emergency message to Uncle Al’s Hologram Helper.
    Thudd pressed the purple button. It blinked three times and went off.
    Andrew glanced around. Nothing on the dashboard could protect them from the powerful wind.
    Then he looked toward the window. He grabbed Judy’s arm. “Come on,” he said, pulling her toward the opening.
    “Are you nuts-o?” said Judy pulling away.
    “Hurry!” yelled Andrew. “We can hide in the space where the window goes down!”
    They rushed toward the window on the driver’s side.
    Whewwwwwwwwww
… came the windy sound of the willy-willy from the passenger’s side.
    They were an inch away from the window when the hot gust hit them. Andrew felt that a giant hair dryer was blowing burning sand against his skin. He closed his eyes to keep out the stinging grains. A sneeze tickled the back of his nose.
    Whooooooooosh
!
    Andrew felt his feet lift off the dashboard. He was blowing away like a candy wrapper in a hurricane!
    “
Aaaaaaaaah
!” came Judy’s voice through the sound of the wind. Judy was squeezing his arm like a boa constrictor.
    Andrew’s stomach jumped and sank as the wind hurled them up and dragged them down and spun them round and round.
    WHOOOOOOOOOOOSH
!
    The wind drowned Judy’s screams.

    Where will the willy-willy take us
? Andrew wondered.
How will Uncle Al ever find us in this humongous desert
?
    Spinning and spinning, Andrew got too dizzy to think about anything but feeling sick. “
URP
!” A giant garlic burp exploded from his stomach.
    Just as it seemed the willy-willy would drag them through the desert forever, the twisting wind began to slow. Andrew felt himself dropping.
    “Yeeeouch!” His butt had slammed into something hard. And he was underwater! His feet couldn’t touch the bottom and there was water up his nose! He held his breath and popped to the surface.
    “Blaaargh!” Judy spluttered.
    “Holy moly!” said Andrew, opening his eyes. As he treaded water, Andrew saw they had landed in a big, warm puddle beneath a scrawny bush. Judy was bobbing next to him.Thudd had pulled himself up out of Andrew’s pocket, crept up his shirt, and climbed on top of his head.
    “It rained in
this
part of the desert! A
lot
!” said Andrew.
    “
Yoop! Yoop! Yoop
!” said Thudd. “Like Unkie said. Maybe not get lotsa rain for lotsa years. When rain come, water collect in holes. Stay for little while.”
    “Better drink while we can,” said Andrew. He dipped his head and began to slurp.
    “Yikes!” yelped Judy. She splashed madly toward the edge of the puddle. “Something bit my foot!”
    meep
… “Dinosaur shrimp!” said Thudd. “Little shrimp hatch from tiny eggs when rain come. Grow fast. Lay eggs in few days.
    “When puddle dry up, shrimp die. But eggs can live lotsa years till rains come. Then eggs hatch.”
    Andrew dog-paddled quickly after Judy.
    They reached the puddle’s shore and climbed onto the shady sand beneath the bush.
    Andrew took in the landscape. Clumps of spiky grass were like islands of giant needles in an ocean of sand. Stony